And he seems to be a very smart and an intelligent man and knows what the hell he is talking about. I am not a complete science guy but he does make sense to me especially when he talks about religion and holy books. Does anybody else watch this guy sometimes putting people in their place?

He usually makes very reasoned arguments, backing up what he says with facts and evidence.

I'm more a fan of his books, which I think are better than videos of him.

Gotcha never read his books but i was curious about the god delusion. Isnt that the name of one of the books?

Yep. And plenty more...

https://www.google.com/search?q=richard+dawkins+books&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS707US707&oq=richard+dawkins+books&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.3279j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Which one would you recommend reading first?

"The Magic of Reality."

Teaches good critical thinking skills.

:)

Alright sounds good to me

I dont think i have seen an angry athiest before. Usually they seem smarter than people that battle them. I am actually amazed how much they know and have studied compared to everybody else that never even break open their bible that claim religion. Usually people think of an athiest as just someone that says f#ck this world and just dresses in black or something but that is definitely not the case. I used to hang out with athiests and they could give two sh#ts about religion unless they saw it as harmful to me.

Woops this last reply was to be to someone else.

I like him and agree with his reasoning.

Yea i think i like him too and it makes me curious to learn more about things like evolution in more detail. The way he explained it all was very interesting and an argument i have never heard before of how the various species came about.

Dawkins is a scientist, not a historian and his knowledge of history and religious conflicts is one-sided and simplistic. He makes some good points about religious fundamentalism, but ignores contributions of liberal religion. He is also polemic and divisive-as much so as the worst religious people. A number of atheists have disagreed with him, especially women who have accused him of sexism.You can look it up. I like his scientific works but dont care for his anti religious rants for the most part.

It makes sense that a theist would not be a fan of Dawkins, just as I will never be a fan of anyone who believes golf courses are wastes of resources. (They are, but too bad...)

My problem isnt that he is an atheist or I am a theist. I think he is full of it and often is either ignorant of facts or to put it politely-misrepresents things.I also do not care for his tone and his call for mockery of the religious. That is hardly a way to win friends and influence people. As for golf,no problems

On the contrary, he is more patient and empathetic to nitwits than anyone on this forum could ever be.

Try to watch this without throwing your cell phone against the wall:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AS6rQtiEh8&t=34s

For those who can't make it, here are the highlights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XrOscFu1y8&t=14s

Who's the one who's "full of it" here? Not him.

Well,all I can day is that I dont share your opinion. I do like his science books, but he should stick to what he knows.

bona dea Wrote:
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> ...but he
> should stick to what he knows.

Oh, the irony...:)

But you got to admit he is pretty funny when interviewing religious fruitcakes.

Yes extremely funny and i dont think he is that mean towards them he actually wants to help people get back into reality. The baffled look he gets on his face is priceless, like when someone talks about flying horses as reality to him.

I was already an atheist before I read/watched Dawkins or any of the famous atheists.

For the most part, I had already come to the same conclusions, though they helped me refine my own ideas.

Perhaps the biggest influence was Christopher Hitchens claiming that Christianity was immoral. I had never let myself look at Christianity as being immoral. I always thought Christianity was bizarre, strange, often violent, etc., but never immoral. It did not take much of a read before I was floored wondering how I never saw it before.

I agree with hitchens that it is immoral i have seen some of his stuff in the past. I am not really sure how i define myself these days, maybe an athiest that tries to have good morals and if the jesus of the new testament really existed then i might be ok with that as well i dont know.

I think Richard Dawkins is not a good spokesperson for atheism because I find him very angry and easily provoked. Doesn't mean he isn't smart--he is.

Better spokespeople are Lawrence Krauss, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett and especially the late Christopher Hitchens. Also Stephen Fry is good, too.

I find Harris' theories on free will incredibly hopeless so I no longer read or listen to him. But he never allows anyone to push his buttons.

I have heard a lot of hitchens in the past but i dont think i have heard of the other guys. Sometimes its hard to follow what hitchens says because of the accent he has but he is a smart dude as well.

If you can't handle it, get up and leave.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/2017 02:08AM by steve benson.

I'm happy for you.

Harris is too Islamophobic for me and is also pretty superficicial about history and many religions. He is calmer though.I am not religious, but dont identify as an atheist either. If you want calm and rational I would go with Sagan. I dont always agree with him but he can get his views across without ranting or demonizing entire groups.

Dont think i have heard of sagan but ill check it out.

There are a lot of people that will only accept atheists that know their place. One thing I hear over and over is about atheists being angry as if A) they have no right to be, and B) that it somehow makes the atheist wrong.

There are a lot of other atheists out their that I like to listen to that are not as famous.

Greta on the angry atheist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUI_ML1qkQE

The Thinking Atheist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J4ZuHEYXkk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTHyVWCoJdg

They can be angry, but I dont have to like them and I dont. When they attack all Muslims or claim that religion is the primary,if not exclusive cause,
for things that had multiple causes I take exception. Again, I am not interested in a long argument about this.

Don't take it personally. You brought up the issue, but there are plenty of others that try to use it as a way to discredit atheists, those were the ones I was addressing.

I think "angry atheist" is a term religious people like to use as a pejorative (derogatory term, slur, etc.) to belittle atheists for daring to criticize their beloved religion.

IMO, it says more about them than it does the atheists.

I disagree. Some atheists are angry and obnoxious. Even other atheists have referred to them that way. Sorry, but Dawkins has been roundly criticiEd by fellow atheists as well as the religious. BTW, I am not particularly religious

Some Christians are angry and obnoxious. So? Other atheists are capable of using ad hominems. So? The term is still, IMO, used as a pejorative, regardless of the user, and does not help the debate.

It isnt pejorative, IMO,if theperson in question is angry and when Christians act the same way feel free to call them angry or whatever fits. Sure, other people do it too, but we are talking about Dawkins here.

I have noticed that Dawkins makes religious people angry and obnoxious

That is true from what i have seen so far.

True that. Dawkins doesn't show nearly as much anger as he inspires among the ignorant.

Religious scripture = Fraud, myth, fantasy

Some get angry when I say that.

Definitely read Sagan's "A Demon Haunted World". It is a book everyone should read.

Watch Cosmos. He was an astronomer. He doesnt talk that much about relgion, but he is an atheist and does get into it at times. His book The Demon Haunted World is good and much more balanced that the others.I would take the angry atheiats with a grain of salt and checkout some of their claims

Yes Adam, I concur with bona dea on Carl Sagans "The Demon Haunted World". Carl Sagan books are all very informative. Between Dawkins and Sagan you've got a lot to read while you heal.

I really love a lot of Dawkins' books, too. He is very readable. Hitchens, Sagan, Ingersoll, Russell, Templeton, too...The list goes on and on. You will have many years of great reading. Enjoy!

badassadam Wrote:
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> Does anybody else watch this guy sometimes putting people in their place?

It's called a Richslap ;)
If you like that, you'll love Christopher Hitchens, the undefeated master of the Hitchslap.

For books, I'd recommend The God Delusion. His best documentary film is The Enemies of Reason.

The God Delusion was the beginning of the end of religion for me. It just made so much more sense than anything I'd been taught my whole life, and it made me realize that atheism isn't "bad" or "evil" or "sinful" like Mormons love to teach.